Tibet Vista

Founded in 1984, Tibet Vista is one of the first Tibet-based tour operators receiving foreign tourists. The company, consisting of over 50 employees, is jointly run by Tibetans and Hans ( people with Han nationality). Overall, Tibetans account for 70 percent of all staffs while the rest are with Han nationality.
For years, Tibet Vista has been committed to objectively introducing profound culture and awe-inspiring natural wonders of Tibet to the world. With sincere management and innovative spirits, we aim to make memorable travel experiences to foreign tourists and shoulder the responsibility for creating more job opportunities for local Tibetans. Till now, Tibet Vista has evolved as a leading Tibet tour operator with over 4000 in-bound foreign tourists annually.

Member since: 24 Sep 2015

How the minimum criteria of the responsible travel standard was met...

Economic responsibility

A famous Chinese saying goes “Give a man a fish and he can eat for a day; but if you teach him how to fish, he'll eat for a lifetime.” We have made concerted efforts to create job opportunities and ingeniously design new tour projects to get local Tibetans involved in the service of Tourism. In this way, we can help locals increase their income in a fundamental way, promote their standards of living and bring tangible benefit to local community through tourism.

All the tour guides and drivers hired by Tibet Vista are pure local Tibetans and Tibet Vista provides them with salary, tour allowance, insurance, travel rewards, and opportunities for in-service training and offer necessary help when their family members become sick.
Owing to the apparent seasonal change of Tibet travel, so far Tibet Vista has offered 9 months' work to around 40 Tibetan staffs from April to January next year, representing 30 percent higher working months than average in the field.

We organized a series of hands-on travel activities around the villages of Lhasa and Tibetan-inhabited areas to bring benefits to locals. For example, invite tourists to learn how to make Tibetan food in small restaurants run by locals and offer half or one day tour to allow tourists to experience the farm work in farmer's family. Besides, we also arrange 1-4 days' trekking in mountainous areas and this can add approximate 500 USD revenue to locals' family.

We have been working to train local Tibetans to work in the field of tourism and helping them to master the professional skills to achieve stable and long-term profits and an improved standards of living. Each year from Nov. to March, Tibet Vista offers much training to all the staffs (such as driver, tour guide, employees of hotels) involved in travel service, including tourism management, service skills, treatment of unexpected injuries, first aid to altitude sickness, etc.

In some remote trekking areas, we tend to dine and stay in restaurants or hostels run by local Tibetan nomads or villagers, or in some cases even stay in the families of locals. In this way, we could benefit locals with low income by buying their food or staying in their families.

Environmental responsibility

Considered to be one of the most important ecological zones, Tibet features abundant natural resources including glaciers, lakes and many world-renowned rivers. As there are no rubbish and sewage disposal facilities in many isolated regions of Tibet, the fragile natural environment needs to be taken with great care. If travelers carelessly leave pollutants in the wild, the damage to the unspoiled environment would be catastrophic and irreversible.

Tibet Vista, being a responsible tour operator in Lhasa, understands how important the coexistence between Tibet tourism and the protection of its natural environment is and always puts environmental protection atfirst, doing its utmost to leave no garbage or any pollution to the scenic sites. We distribute rubbish bags to each traveler, so they can collect their own trash as they travel and later throw all of it to designated places, we suggest tourists carry their own drinking bottle.

Whilst trekking in the wilderness, we advocate pollution-free travel and all the plastic rubbish and other pollutants that can't decompose naturally will be packed and carried by yaks to the highway and later get transferred back to cities by tour bus for disposal. We make sure no organic rubbish will be left around camping sites, and things like human waste and food remnant of meal are expected to be buried deep. Local guides also help to educate guests on travelling responsibly through fragile environments.

Social responsibility

The tragic Nepalese earthquake on April 25, 2015 caused profound impact on Tibet tourism with 40% loss of business. The hardest hit area was the Sino-Nepal border, which saw travellers cancelling tours leaving tourism in both Nepal and Tibet at a low ebb. All the staff of Tibet Vista raised 5,320 USD to Lion Club ( www.lionsclubs.org.np) in Nepal and later inquired about the disaster relief efforts there and learned that a new school was built in mountainous area as a result of this donation.

We give every tourist a guide on how to be a responsible traveller, an initiative created by Tibetan Village Project and Chris Jones for the Tibet Ecotourism Project: an ongoing educational initiative through Columbia University, NYC. This initiative lists basic rules and highlights the social responsibility one has to fulfill so as to be a responsible traveler. Before beginning of tourists' journey, the initiative has been sent to their E-mails and the relevant information has also been posted on our website.

We encourage guests to buy locally, to eat in local restaurants and buy handicrafts that are authentic and locally made. We employ local guides and staff who help make guests aware of any cultural values that may differ from their own, for example regarding clothing or the taking of photographs.

Tibetans are generally very easy going and may not make it clear if you are behaving inappropriately. Here are a number of things you can easily avoid to ensure your presence is respectful and your interaction with locals will have a positive long-term impact however we let guests know that it is not advisable to buy products made from endangered wildlife or endangered plants; intrude on local people's homes, tents, land or private activities (such as sky burials); swim in holy lakes, sit on holy objects such as mani stones, or walk on or step over prayer flags or create dependency on hand-outs.